Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings to all my readers! Today in the United States we are celebrating a holiday called Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was first suggested as a holiday from President George Washington, but it didn't become a annual national holiday until 1863 and President Lincoln's proclamation. I hadn't read the Thanksgiving Day proclamation from President Lincoln before this week. It is a great speech and is very thought provoking. Here is an excerpt:

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

This speech came when our country was in the middle of a civil war. A very violent and horrible time in our history, and yet we had things to be thankful for.

I am amazed by how openly Lincoln spoke about God's amazing blessings. I pray that more of us would have the courage to speak opening about the many blessings that God has given us. Thankfulness is contagious, and us sharing our thankfulness might be all it takes to help someone redirect their focus.

May this day have your family celebrating your blessings (we don't need a national holiday to celebrate) and may you take time each day to help your children gives thanks....even in the hard times.

I pray that God's abundant blessings are evident in your home today and always! Happy Thanksgiving!